We traveled to Pendleton, OR for the Century Ride of Centuries (www.cyclependleton.com) on Memorial Day weekend. An escape from the hustle and bustle for three days of most excellent cycling : great routes, scenery, super low traffic, near perfect weather and wonderful fellow riders and event volunteers.
Friday Afternoon : Arrive in Pendleton and set up our tent at the Wildhorse Resort RV park. Checked in at Hamley's Slickfork Saloon and had a free beer. Then dinner at Hamley's Steakhouse.
Early morning, ready to ride!
Saturday : We rode the 74 mile route, out Despain Gulch to the town of Echo and then back to Wildhorse along the Umatilla River. Start and end at Wildhorse.
Time for snacks - Despain Gulch rest stop.
Sunday : Packed up our tent and things and loaded on the event trailer in the morning. Then rode our bikes up the long Cabbage Hill climb to Deadman's Pass. Continued on a bit beyond the rest stop, and turned around as we were running a bit behind. Made the big descent down Cabbage Hill and then turned east up along the Umatilla River to the Bar M Ranch where our camp gear was waiting. Ended up riding about sixty miles.
Happy rider
Up on Cabbage Hill...
Monday : Packed up the tent again and loaded on the trailer. Rode back down along the river, then turned north at Thorn Hollow and rode up into the wheat fields, thru the town of Adams and then back to Wildhorse.
Departing Bar M Ranch on Monday morning
Crested Thorn Hollow grade
Camp at the Bar M Ranch
Loaded up for gear in this trailer, the volunteers hauled everything back to Wildhorse
Lodge at Bar M, they served a great dinner and breakfast.
Well,
maybe not rock, but he got two qualifying runs in Rally Advanced A -
earning his title. After being 0h for three at the Rose City Classic in
January, this was his big comeback. Friday evening we got a score of 84
(fourth in field of nine), and that was after pulling him back from the
brink of all sniffiness, not once, not twice, but three times. Saturday,
he pulled off a 95 (5th place in a large field), his best score ever -
we lost three points for being 'out of control'. He did the high jump
three times (was only supposed to jump once). He did the jump just like
he was supposed to. Then, farther along in the course he saw the jump
and he got so darn excited that he ran the across the ring and jumped
again, but, he came right back and started heeling again (bless his
heart) - and this happened twice!
Echo and Roddy made the trip across the river to Vancouver to compete in the Willamette Toy Dog Club show on Thursday and Friday.
We tried to downgrade Echo from Rally Advance to Rally Novice, judge said no way. He is not as reliable off leash as I would hope, so we will hope for the best.
Echo's Results:
Thursday - qualifying run of 89. Had trouble with the Jump and the Stand from Sit, I'd say my fault for not training enough. So now that we have a qualifying run in Advanced, he can never compete in Novice. We need to work on his reliability, focus and attention.
Friday: NQ. I got his attention at the Start sign and started off straight ahead with the command 'heel'. Echo did a 90 degree turn and headed out gate. Oops!
Roddy's Results:
Thursday - NQ. Got distracted, check the video.
Friday - NQ. Darn, he only needed one more leg to get his title.
Echo and I entered the Roseburg show on Thurs, Fri, Sat; Nov 17 -19, 2011. In a word, a humbling experience. We have a lot of work to do on focus and attention.
Day 1:
- NQ in Beginner Novice (his nose hit the carpeted floor and I picked him up and left after 30 seconds).
Day 2:
- NQ in Beginner Novice (nose hit the floor, I just started talking to him and we got all the way through the run, judge said 'nice try'. Not qualified because you can only talk to your dog a couple of times, not 10's or 100's of times.
- NQ in Rally Novice B (nose hit the floor half way through - picked him up and left the ring).
Day 3:
Qualifying run with score of 189 in Beginner Novice - yeah. Had crooked sit on the recall, some tight leash, some excessive # commands. I attributed our success to really, really , really pumping him up with our 'Eye Contact' game during the five minutes before we entered the ring.
